Men cannot really long remain content with mediocrity once they see that excellence is within their reach. Thomas S. Monsoon
Learn our duty
Make our decision
Act accordingly
Accept the Lord’s will
I was only 12 years old when the missionaries arrived for the first time to preach in the city where I was born in northern Chile. One Sunday, after I had been attending the small branch for six months, a missionary offered me the bread as he was passing the sacrament. I looked at him and softly said, “I can’t.”
“Why not?” he replied.
I told him, “Because I am not a member of the Church.”
Many adults fail to recognize that the sacrament is meant for those who have made covenants.
What responsibility do we have as members of the Church of Jesus Christ? President Joseph Fielding Smith expressed it as follows: “We have these two great responsibilities. … First, to seek our own salvation; and, second, our duty to our fellow men.”
These, then, are the main responsibilities that our Father has assigned to us: seeking our own salvation and that of others, with the understanding that in this statement, salvation means reaching the highest degree of glory that our Father has provided for His obedient children These responsibilities that have been entrusted to us—and which we have freely accepted—must define our priorities, our desires, our decisions, and our daily conduct.
For someone who has come to understand that, because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, exaltation is truly within reach, failing to obtain it constitutes damnation. Thus, the opposite of salvation is damnation, just like the opposite of success is failure. President Thomas S. Monson has taught us that “men cannot really long rest content with mediocrity once they see excellence is within their reach.”
Salvation means not having limits on our potential. Stopping our progress – damnation – stood our progress by definition.
If we are to do God’s will, if we are to be responsible to Him, we must begin by learning, understanding, accepting, and living according to His will for us. The Lord has said, “Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence.”
Ignorance keeps us from being accountable but it also prevents real progress.
Whether we have learned about the Restoration of the gospel, a particular commandment, the duties associated with serving in a calling, or the covenants we make in the temple, the choice is ours whether or not we act according to that new knowledge. Each person chooses freely for himself or herself to enter into a sacred covenant such as baptism or the temple ordinances. Because swearing oaths was a normal part of people’s religious lives in antiquity, the old law stated that “ye shall not swear by my name falsely.” However, in the meridian of time, the Savior taught a higher way of keeping our commitments when He said that yes meant yes and no meant no. A person’s word ought to be sufficient to establish his or her truthfulness and commitment toward someone else—and even more so when that someone else is our Father in Heaven. Honoring a commitment becomes the manifestation of the truthfulness and honesty of our word.
In our day, contracts do what oaths we expected to do in former times. Unfortunately I’m society we see people and organizations living at the furthest edges of those contracts.
After learning our duty and making the decisions that are associated with that learning and understanding, we must act accordingly.
Regardless of our words, it decisions are only effective insist as we act on them.
Discipleship requires us not only to learn our duty, make correct decisions, and act in accordance with them, but also essential is our developing the willingness and the ability to accept God’s will, even if it does not match our righteous desires or preferences.
I am impressed by and admire the attitude of the leper who came to the Lord, “beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.” The leper did not demand anything, even though his desires might have been righteous; he was simply willing to accept the will of the Lord.
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